


Faultlines

by S J Smith (Evil_Little_Dog)



Category: Angel: the Series, Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Genre: Alternate Reality, Alternate Universe - Canon, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-05-11
Updated: 2012-05-11
Packaged: 2017-11-05 04:43:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,199
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/402559
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Evil_Little_Dog/pseuds/S%20J%20Smith
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Summary:  Alternate Reality ficlet post - after the episode, "End of Days", unexpected help comes to town.<br/>Disclaimer:  Joss and I are besties!  Er, not.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Faultlines

**Author's Note:**

> Note 1: Kennedy's PoV.  
> Note 2: Takes place in an A.R. after the AtS episode “Home” and the BtVS episode “End of Days”. For this story; Connor wasn’t whisked away by Wolfram and Hart and Cordy is definitely awake. Go with it.  
> Note 3: No, I’m not writing more on it. I just found it on the hard drive and I wrote this bit a looooong time ago. But I can see I was trying to fix things.

We all jerked at the sound of the knock but it wasn’t a knock, it was a pounding and we, the last ones left after Faith’s fiasco of leading us into battle, looked around at each other, wondering who was going to be brave enough to go to the door.

Willow took the decision from us, though Dawn and I both gasped – and I yanked a stake – I wasn’t going to let my girl get hurt without a fight. She stood on her toes to look outside and opened the door all in a rush. The person standing on the threshhold blinked blue eyes, looking in at her and I thought, she’s pretty, another Potential?

Then she opened her mouth and I realized I was wrong – “Where is he?” the boy – that’s a boy? – asked.

“He? He who?” Willow looked flustered, a hand moving in that familiar jerky way that said she was nervous.

“Angel,” the boy – young man? God, he’d look beautiful in drag – nearly spat out. “My father.”

Xander managed to drag himself out of his chair, smoothing back his hair, somehow avoiding the eyepatch. He grabbed at a cross on the newell post and shoved it into the boy’s face. The boy recoiled, his mobile brows drawing down to emphasis his sneer. “Whatever you do, don’t invite him in.”

The boy snarled. “I’m not a vampire.”

“He’s not,” Willow said, lacing her fingers together and giving all of us, the only ones left, a sickly grin. “He’s Angel’s son. Connor.” Her eyes grew wider. “A-and Cordy. And Wes. Oh, look,” she said, her voice not quite trembling, “there’s Fred and Gunn and Lorne, too. Like an L.A. invasion.”

“We’ll leave,” a brunette said, sailing through the doorway past the pretty boy and Willow, “just as soon as we can collect Angel.” She hesitated, one perfectly coifed brow rising as she looked us all over, the weapons scattered everywhere. “Some things never change. Sunnydale, weapons and this place.”

“Da-amn,” an African American man said from the doorway, running a hand over his shaved head. “When you said there was an invasion, Cordy, you meant it.”

“I always mean my visions,” she said.

The effeminate boy stole in behind the brunette, casually hefting one of the axes. Rona glowered at him but he didn’t seem to notice. His eyes darkened and a faint smile curled his lips. I shuddered. What kind of kid got off on weapons?

Dawn was staring at Connor in a sort of a dazed way. “Angel’s got a son?” she asked the air.

“Connor, Dawn; Dawn, Connor,” the brunette said, flapping a hand between the two. “So, he’s out with Buffy?”

I eyed the green demon with the red horns, the woman and the man who stood just inside the doorway now and shifted my grip on my stake. Their tension communicated itself to me, to everyone in the room. Maybe it was the heavy crossbow the skinny woman held. Maybe it was the handguns, a pair of them, cross holstered on the tall, skinny man. Maybe it was the way that brunette made my Willow look flustered and nervous. All right, it was probably all of that and more.

“Uh,” Xander said, ducking his head.

The brunette folded her arms, fixing Xander, Willow and the rest of us with a glare designed to melt lesser mortals. God, what a bitch. “Don’t tell me you don’t know where your Slayer is.”

“She’s not ours,” Rona said sharply, “not any more.”

“I beg your pardon?”

The skinny man sounded like Giles; he kind of resembled the Watcher as well but I couldn’t remember Giles with a pair of guns. My evaluation of these people reassessed itself. I tossed back my hair. It was in the way. “We voted her out.”

The brunette scoffed. “This is not some episode of Survivor. You don’t vote your Slayer off the island.”

“We’ve got another one,” Rona said. “Faith.” Who, we weren’t going to say, was upstairs with Giles looking after her, resting, recovering from that bomb that Caleb left for us.

“Great.” The brunette smiled like a knife’s edge. “Sunnydale’s going to Hell and we’re here for it.” She tossed her hands in the air. “C’mon, guys. We’ve got Angel to find and a world to save.” Touching the boy’s shoulder, she moved past him. His electric gaze passed over us all. I shivered uncontrollably.

“C-Cordelia, wait,” Willow said, bouncing after them. “You don’t know what’s going on.”

The brunette turned slowly, the boy mirroring her movement. I got into Willow’s space. I didn’t trust either of these people – any of them. “Let me get this straight,” Cordelia said, “I had a vision – a mind crunching monster of a vision with sensoround sight and sound and smell, too – of Buffy fighting something nasty.” Her mouth exaggerated the word, “Alone. Without her little Scooby Gang. No wonder Angel rushed off.”

“Think we car – “ Rona started to say.

Dawn interrupted, nearly shoving me aside to get to Cordelia. “Where is she?” The words tore out of her in a panic.

Cordelia shrugged. “If we find Angel, we’ll probably find Buffy.” Her voice lowered slightly as she added, “That’s the way it usually goes.” She glanced at Connor. “You can find him, right?”

He nodded solemnly at her question but his flaming blue gaze caught the rest of us on fire. “Let’s go. I don’t want to stay here where people turn on their champions.”

“But we,” Willow said, starting after them. I touched her shoulder and she cringed away. Dawn swiped at her running eyes.

“We made the right decision,” I said firmly.

Xander moistened his lips, taking a step towards the doorway that so recently held the strangers. “You think they’d let us go with?” He looked at Willow.

“You can’t believe they’re right, Willow,” I said. “We all know Buffy was wrong. We decided.”

“Maybe we decided wrong,” Dawn grated out. She snatched a sword from one of the stockpiles and strode out the door. “Cordelia! Wait for me!”

“You’re joking,” I said, spinning towards Willow. She smiled at me sadly, reaching out to cup my cheek. “Don’t do this, Willow.”

“I have to, baby,” she said softly. “Xander? You coming?”

He nodded abruptly, picking up a couple of stakes and tucking them into a pocket, grabbing a crossbow. “Let’s go, Will.”

“She’s crazy,” Rona said. “You’re all crazy.”

“Maybe,” Xander said, shrugging. “But it’s Buffy. And I’ve always got her back before.”

“You’ll stay here, right? Protect Faith and Giles?” Willow’s eyes pled with me to understand. “We’ll be back, soon. I promise.” And she slipped out into the night before I could say anything, Xander closing the door behind them.

“I don’t believe it,” Rona said, kicking at the carpet. “They’re going to their deaths.”

“Don’t say that,” I snapped. “Just shut up.”

Rona curled her mouth at me but subsided into a sullen silence, falling onto the couch. I walked to the door, laying my fingertips on it, feeling the night beyond it. They were gone. She was gone.

“Oh God,” I said, sinking to the floor, my knees giving out abruptly. “Oh, God.”


End file.
